The Saturday before the Saturday before Christmas and a puzzle from Wiglaf.
Some tricky clues certainly – lots with ? attached to the definition meaning a bot of lateral thinking is required. But all fair. 3dn was a new name for me.
Favourite clue is 13 dn but there are several others worthy of that title. 23 dn being one of them.
Thanks Wiglaf and all the best for Christmas to you all however you choose to celebrate it.
Key:
DD Double definition; * anagram; underline – definition;
ACROSS
1 Henry’s blue? What happened? (7)
H (Henry) + is Tory (blue) = HISTORY
5 American actress at university still? (5-2)
Close (American actress as in Glenn) + up (at university) = CLOSE-UP
9 Relief from the unipolar economic ideology at last (5)
Last letters from the unipolar economic ideology = MERCY
10 Clumsy type, awfully large, going round university at speed (9)
U(university) + mph (speed) in (large)* = GALUMPHER
11 Landscaper gets aroused by erotic performers (3,7)
(landscaper)* = LAP DANCERS
12 Duke abandoned by cheating wife (4)
Fraud (cheating) – d (duke) = FRAU
14 Enjoy sex with naughty ladies prepared to go on the internet? (11)
Dig (enjoy) + IT (sex) + (ladies)8 = DIGITALISED
18 Incredible adult experiences with 20 in US city (11)
tall (incredible) + a (adult) + has (experiences) + see (escort) = TALLAHASSEE
21 Croatians regularly shower(4)
cRoAtIaNs regularly = RAIN
22 What discounter could provide (10)
(discounter)* = REDUCTIONS
25 Perched with forest wolf in a tree (9)
sat (perched) + wood (forest) around (indicated by wolf) in = SATINWOOD
26 A fighter plane heading round China (5)
A + mig (fighter plane) + o (round) = AMIGO (China as in friend)
27 The story of a meat product (4,3)
DD PORK PIE
28 Dismiss the possibility of rugby stars attending do (4,3)
Ru (rugby) + leo (stars) + ut (do – musical note) = RULE OUT
DOWN
1 Welcoming speech head of economics provided for institute (6)
Homily (speech) swapping I for e (head of economics) = HOMELY
2 Abandons second game (6)
S (second) + craps (game) = SCRAPS
3 Australian chap stops Daisy upsetting mummy (10)
Oz(Australian) + man (chap) in (daisy)* = OZYMANDIAS (Mummy as in Pharaoh)
4 A bear caught posturing? (5)
Yogi (a bear) + c (caught) = YOGIC
5 Mixture of more than 50% Rochelle salt and different salts (9)
(Roche + salt)* = CHLORATES
6 Leader in Syrian city moves resistance units (4)
Homs (Syrian city) moving H = OHMS
7 Knock out the bastard on top of Eiffel Tower (8)
(the)* + e (top of Eiffel) + rise (tower) =ETHERISE
8 Get a leather on the ear (8)
per (a) + homonym of suede (leather) = PERSUADE
13 Two princes left concert venue (6,4)
Albert + Hal (2 princes) + l (left) = ALBERT HALL
15 Cricketing legend (not English) makes embellishment to score (5,4)
Grace (Cricketing legend) + not + e (english) = GRACE NOTE
16 Begins to drink after eating pies (6,2)
sup (drink) around tarts (pies) = STARTS UP
17 Charlie has to hang around with son inside arcade (8)
C (Charlie) + loiter (hang around) around s (son) = CLOISTER
19 Fetish about vermouth cocktail (6)
Mojo (fetish) around it (vermouth) = MOJITO
20 Car attendant (6)
DD ESCORT
23 Ken after standing goes below (5)
understanding (ken) – standing = UNDER
24 This card game takes the biscuit (4)
DD SNAP
Great fun. Lots of head scratching but got there in the end except not knowing the Syrian city for 6d. Also didn’t know UT for DO(H) but looked it up. Did know 3d though. Took a while to see ‘wolf’ as an inclusion indicator in 25a – great clue. 5a and 8d were my last two. Of all the meanings for ‘still’ in 5a, I didn’t think of a photographic one until after the answer became obvious. For ages, I was thinking PEROXIDE fitted the cryptic part of 8d but then FRAU at 12a put paid to that daft idea. Don’t like cricket but even I have heard of Grace.
Thanks to Wiglaf and twencelas.
“My name is Ozymandias, King of kings;
Look on my works ye mighty and despair”.
I’ve always remembered those lines from primary school poetry as a reminder that glory and power won’t last for ever, without knowing that Ozymandias was another name for Ramesses II.
Had trouble with a few including RULE OUT which I couldn’t parse and there were others which needed a bit of thought including the US city. HISTORY was my favourite; concise, with an apparently simple but not so obvious def.
After today’s events in Perth, I suspect England could well do with the return of the good Dr. W.G. to embellish their own score.
Thanks to Wiglaf and twencelas
We almost got it right – all we could think of for 19dn was BONITO. OK, it’s a fish but a bit of googling turned up that there is a cocktail of that name too and we thought ‘bono’ might possibly be a sort of fetish. And ‘fetish’ is ‘et’ inside ‘fish’ – now there’s an idea for a clue: “Fixation of alien about fish? On the contrary! (6)”.
The rest was a struggle in places, and we couldn’t parse TALLAHASSEE for ages (as well as having to look up the spelling). Not sure, either, that a CLOSE-UP is the same as a still, but at least there was a question mark in the clue.
Favourite was OZYMANDIAS – remembered not only from schooldays but from John Wyndham quoting those two lines in The Day of the Triffids.
Thanks, Wiglaf and twencelas.
I didnt think OZYMANDIAS was fair.As meaning mummy-it is not in my new Chambers and there is no indicator that it is a poetic work.
So that leaves the possibility of remembering it(Shelley was a genius) or somehow working out from the wordplay which is also possible.
Otherwise OK